I hate all
the new talk about hate speech legislation. I hate any effort to make
any speech a criminal offense, unless perhaps it emanates from the mouth of Tom Cruise. Or
if it involves threat or incitement to
kill or riot. But there are already laws covering such things.
I hate hate speech,
but I hate worse any effort to create laws against it. The thing is, people
love to hate. Ask Rush Limbaugh. No, don’t. Just listen to him. Behind the
pose of fairness: hate, hate, hate, sneer, sneer, sneer. Ask Bill Maher. No
pose of fairness there, just hate, hate, hate, sneer, sneer, sneer.
Of course, I like Maher’s
forthright hate a lot more than Limbaugh’s disguised hate. That’s my hateful
taste. That makes me a hate hypocrite to some, I guess, and they can hate me
for it. Bon apetit! In this country, we have the right to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of hatred.
Especially since Dick “Go
F--- Yourself” Cheney and George W. “He’s a major-league a------“ Bush took
over.
But I digress. Hate when
I do that.I hate a lot of things
about the LocalLaw
Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005 (HR3132, Senate
bill1145), which the
House
passed in September. First, I hate the fact that it is necessary at all.
I hate the fact that people get so hateful that they insult, assault,
injure, and kill. Of course, if you are going to engage in those things,
it’s a lot easier to do it with hate than without.
But I digress again! Hate
when that happens.
The thing I really hate
about S. 1145 is that it sounds nice and noble, but hides something
potentially hateful. That is, if you do not hate the Bill of Rights, the
Constitution, and general licentiousness---er, freedom---guaranteed in this
country.
It hides the fact that
the federal government will have the right to not only prosecute hate
speech,
but to decide what hate speech is. Yes, I know it’s a “hate crimes”
bill, not “hate speech,” but guess what? I even hate the term “hate crime.”
After all, what crime is
committed without hatred? Jaywalking. Maybe.
If a gay person, or a
black person, or any sort of person is attacked, injured, or murdered---on
the basis of bigotry and resentment---how is that different from a person
attacked, injured, murdered on the basis of fifty bucks in a wallet? Tell a
robbery or rape victim that they have not been subjected to a hate crime,
and I’ll bet they’ll just hate hearing that. Crime is an act of
hatred. Hatred of law, or hatred of perceived injustices, hatred of
personal circumstances, hatred of society. And I hate having to state
anything so painfully obvious.
But I digress yet again.
Don’t you just hate that?
In Canada, “hate
speech”---defined as advocating genocide or racial hatred---can get you
fourteen years in prison, which is a pretty hateful place. In the UK,
inciting racial animisoty can get you seven years. Hmmm. So if I move to
Canada and I go nuts and start blogging about getting rid of all men in business suits, they can throw me in the clink. Never mind how
improved the world might be.
Okay, frankly, I agree
that anybody who goes on-line, or on the street with a sign, or on the
airwaves or rooftops or hires a blimp and advocates genocide or racial
animosity. . .should be prosecuted. For something. Loitering, creating a
public nuisance, inciting to riot, disturbing the peace (now there's a law
I'd like to see enforced!) Or at least their internet/TV station/blimp plug
should be pulled or sign torn up. I hate ‘em. But what of televangelists
like the sinister D. James Kennedy,
a church-as state
advocate who broadcasts extremely hateful, inflammatory political
propaganda every Sunday morning under the cover of
religion?* See my point? When is hate hate, and when is hate just a
point of view?
And do you want those
nuts in D.C. to decide?
Of course, this new bill
was supported by esteemed elected representatives who claim they really hate
“hate crimes” and “hate speech.” That these things just fill them with
hatred, and who can blame them?
The problem is that we
are in the midst of a particularly hateful time when hateful people have
taken over the government, and want to do hateful things like limit freedoms
under the pretense of protecting the country from hateful terrorists. These people---and
their special interest controllers---will really support S.1145, because
this means they can pretty much define “hate speech” as they like, and
arrest people for speaking it. And then they can invite all the good
folks out there to hate those nasty hateful people, too.
All of you readers who
are now saying, “oh, they’d hate to do anything like that,” let me remind
you of the
woman who was not allowed to fly in a commercial jetliner
recently because she wore a humorous T-shirt expressing hate for “President”
Bush. Let me remind you of
a bill pending in Indiana
that says if you have a child out of wedlock that you will be criminally
prosecuted---apparently for hating marriage. Let me remind you that White
House advisor Karl Christian Rove (put that middle name in quotes)
called ordinary citizen/mom Cindy Sheehan---a heartbroken woman who is
protesting a war that killed her son, that killed her son---a
“clown.”
And let me remind you of
Hate Central, which you are looking at right now.
Yes, people who love to
hate have found paradise in a computer screen, enabling them to type the
most
vile, vindictive, vituperative, vexacious viciousness imaginable. No, it
is quite beyond imaginable. You hate it---the Internet loves it.
If you are now thinking
that “hate speech” laws could become a means of government censorship of the
‘net, well, then, you are thinking.
Which reminds me, I’ve
got to get busy hating before the government takes away my right to do so.
You know, the government that claims to oppose “big government” but has done
more to interfere with civil rights and freedom than any administration in
U.S. history; that is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Iraq while
U.S. education goes to hell, the middle class withers away, poverty enters deep-rot, and corporations run rampant over conciousness and
environment. Okay, I'm warmed up now, so here goes. . .I hate pit-bulls, and
Rottweilers. I hate Bush’s beady, self-righteous little eyeballs. I hate
warm coffee, and soup that is too hot, and the fact that newspapers have
forgotten that they are supposed to be hard-hitting and largely local. I
really, really hate demographics and marketing people and their
profession---more than I can express---and the grip they have on culture. I
hate the way they say they are just giving the public what it wants, when in
fact they are pandering to whatever the public will respond to on an animal
level. When their only goal is to make money, regardless of the impact of
any given product on society.
I hate the crotch-level
jeans that all women seem to be wearing. They destroy all grace in the
female figure, and turn lithe physiques into segmented bug-bodies. I hate
the fact that it takes Oprah Winfrey to get people to read, and that most of
what they read is demographically designed crap, anyhow. I really, really,
really hate movie previews---their hypertrophic volume, cataclysmic sound
effects that are actually physical assaults, and that Voice of Satan guy who
does all the narration for every new film. Eww!
I hate the fact that the
"president" can get away with nominating ardent extreme-right "Christian"
ideologues for the Supreme Court. I hate that these nominees refuse to
answer the only germane questions asked---about their politics. I
hate the fact that if I spend five minutes in a Starbucks, my pores reek of
coffee. I hate "grinders" and the infernal noise they make as they try
endlessly to flip a skateboard on to a sidewalk curb. I think it's the
second stupidest "sport" ever dreamed up, right after soccer. Oh, and um. . .if I
could express the sheer contempt I feel for cigarette smokers, well, I’d
be a hell of a writer. I mean, suck that poison smoke in. . .blow that
poison smoke out. . .suck that poison smoke in. . .now look intense. .
.Suckers. I hate almost all sitcoms, of course, but I admit they might be
funny if you have Down’s Syndrome or cannot speak English.
I hate the fact that one of the astronauts
recently remarked that
the air’s atmospheric layer is visibly thinner than it was twenty years ago,
and that this barely made a headline. I hate anyone talking on a cell phone,
driving or otherwise. I hate the obsession with cars, cars, cars. I hate Michael
Jackson’s parents, and people who do not say “hello” on sidewalks, and
people who do not respond to polite letters or e-mail, and people who equate
courtesy with weakness. I hate bitchiness. I hate the fact that a very
reputable and plugged-in animation consultant wanted two grand up-front to
shop my children’s fable. Two grand! (I turned him down.) I really
hate all those “country” singers with those stupid, stupid black hats. I
think they should all be rounded up, put into "detention facilities," and
made to go hatless. I cannot begin to convey the profound hatred I feel for
the L.A. Times editor who un-hired me as a columnist (after another had
hired me) because, and I quote, “we have too many white male columnists
here.” I hate tattoos,
especially those at the base of women's spines. I absolutely hate
religious fanaticism of any sort, and I revile blind nationalism. I hate
that a former friend of mine once declared, "I can't think of a better
reason to invade another country than to take its oil." I hate "The View,"
and Rupert Murdoch, and SUV's. I think SUV drivers should be rounded up, put
into "detention facilities," and made to walk twenty miles per day. I
hate the phoney "war on terrorism," and the lies that come from Washington
with every single act and public statement. I hate the complacency of the
citizens of this country.
And, well, I really hate to go
on like this.

* Just
about half of each Kennedy broadcast is flagrantly political, often
involving distorted and false assertions about the ACLU.
Quote from Kennedy: "As Vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly
dominion and influence over our schools, government, literature, and news
media and our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and
institution of human society."BACK TO PAGE ONE